International

LILLEY: Ford right to pass on Taverner for top OPP job

It took him a bit but Doug Ford is doing the right thing and looking for a new OPP Commish.

Ontario hasn’t had a full-time commissioner of the OPP since Nov. 2, 2018 when Vince Hawkes resigned and it didn’t look like there would be one anytime soon.

The premier appointed longtime Toronto Police Supt. Ron Taverner back in December but that appointment has been bogged down in controversy ever since.

Taverner is a personal and family friend of the premier.

After standing firm for months, Ford and Taverner agree this appointment is not the best idea.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to media at Queen’s Park, in Toronto on Nov. 19, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

On Wednesday, citing his concern for the frontline officers, Taverner announced his withdrawal, saying in writing that he wanted “to protect the integrity of rank-and-file police officers given the controversy surrounding my appointment.”

In a statement, Ford thanked Taverner and called for an overhaul of the OPP.

“We need a new vision for the OPP; one that puts the interests of our frontline officers and the safety of the people of Ontario as its primary focus,” Ford said.

The force has been dealing with major issues from low morale to suicides among the ranks.

Taverner, a cop with 50 years experience, could have cleaned the force up, but the optics of the situation and the bungling of this issue by Ford from the beginning made that impossible.

The problem is the premier wasn’t straight up with the public. He said that neither he nor his office were involved in selecting Taverner when we know that isn’t true.

Ford tried to put this off on an independent hiring committee and that he was simply accepting their arms-length recommendations.

The premier should have owned this from the beginning, saying that there are problems in the OPP and that he trusted Taverner to fix everything from the low morale, the dysfunctional HQ and disturbing suicides among members of the force.

The jobs of OPP commissioner and deputy commissioner are by nature political appointments; they are order-in-council appointments made by cabinet at the recommendation of the premier.

Ford could have appointed his gardener and it would be legal. Instead, he hired a qualified cop but lost him through poor handling of the situation.

Former deputy commish Brad Blair apparently felt that if he didn’t get the job, then Taverner shouldn’t either.

OPP’s Brad Blair (CNW Group/Ontario Provincial Police)

When Blair, a cop with more than 30 years experience, didn’t get the job, he complained to the provincial ombudsman, claiming political interference.

The ombudsman rightly looked at the issue and said he wouldn’t investigate.

How can you have political interference in an appointment that is a political appointment?

And Blair can’t claim political interference for being fired from the force. With an order-in-council appointment, you serve at the pleasure of the government of the day.

But don’t think that Blair was fired by Ford in a fit of rage, he was fired for making internal OPP e-mails, including a police report, public.

He filed OPP e-mails in court as part of his lawsuit last week, an act that caused one of Ford’s bodyguards to be removed from his position and further soured the rank-and-file on Blair.